Author: Robby Lewis-Nash
Robby Lewis-Nash is a freelance writer and activist living in Portland, Maine.
Once a week, the storeroom behind Gateway Community Services on Forest Avenue in Portland is transformed and the empty space becomes a cornucopia. By mid-morning, 50-pound bags of black beans, lentils, and rice are stacked high on pallets, alongside countless boxes of bananas, limes, fresh herbs, and vegetables. Volunteer “rationers” stand at tables spaced 10…
Activists with Community Water Justice and concerned residents from across the region gathered in Fryeburg on Saturday to protest Nestlé’s planned sale of its bottled water business to private equity firm One Rock Capital. At an estimated $4 billion, opponents say the sale represents the largest private transfer of water rights for bottlers in U.S.…
This is the second story in our two-part series on the water crisis on the Passamaquoddy reservation at Pleasant Point. You can read the first installment here. “How safe is the Passamaquoddy Water District (PWD) water?” reads a 1987 headline in Eastport’s Quoddy Tides. The article reports that water testing between 1977 and 1981 “showed…
On windy days, the water that comes out of the taps on the Passamaquoddy reservation at Pleasant Point runs greenish brown. On a particularly bad day, it can be nearly black. “It’s been a long time that we haven’t been able to drink our water here on the reservation,” said Denise Altvater, a Passamaquoddy tribal…
Last week, South Portland residents overwhelmed a virtual meeting between the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and South Portland’s Clean Air Advisory Committee (CAAC). The meeting was held to review proposed changes to the operating license for a petroleum storage facility in South Portland owned by Global Partners LP, where emissions have violated the Clean…
Residents of Old Town and Penobscot tribal leaders worry that Maine has become the dumping ground for New England as the Juniper Ridge Landfill has for years threatened the region’s water supply and the health of the surrounding communities, despite decades of citizen opposition and the intentions of the legislature to limit and regulate dangerous…
Sen. Angus King is cosponsoring legislation to repeal tax breaks for wealthy Americans included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed in late March. “With unemployment skyrocketing, families facing extreme uncertainty, and small businesses, state governments, and hospitals across the country struggling to make it through a hard economic time, it…
Across the country, the Latinx community is one of the most exposed to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Maine, many Latinx workers in diverse communities across the state are either employed on the frontlines of the pandemic or have been laid off without access to federal and state-level relief; from migrant farmworkers Downeast…
On the morning of April 4, employees of Trader Joe’s in Portland awoke to a letter in their mailboxes from company CEO Dan Bane. The letter, which was sent to every company employee, called attention to the “barrage of union activity that has been directed at Trader Joe’s and other ‘non-union’ grocers during this difficult…
On January 27, 72 Maine residents testified to the Health and Human Services committee on LD 1955, a bill that would add a dental benefit to our state’s low-income health insurance option, MaineCare. Every seat at the hearing was filled, leaving many to gather in the hallway to wait for their turn to speak. In…